Tag Archives: Family Life

I’ve had this post drafted since Week 2, post-partum with Elodie. She is now almost 5 months. Oops. So I guess that answers your question of has life changed with 2 kids? (I’m basically either with one child or another and yes my husband is a big kid so is totally included in this 😉 Life is full of mayhem, giggles, raised voices, love and a shocking amount of nappies, thanks for asking.)

Anyway – onwards with the super-long post!

Not only have our little Lee family been blessed to have been able to bring two beautiful beings into the world, I also feel fortunate enough to have experienced both a C-Section and a natural birth (or in my case a.k.a. VBAC – vaginal birth after C-Section).

It’s totally normal to feel trepidatious about the whole birthing experience; but from our experience we can happily say that both forms of birth can be empowering and positive when you’ve got the right frame of mind going into it.

So sit back and allow me to share my personal recollections for both births for posterity’s sake and our shared amusement.

C-Section / Caesarean Section

Holding Adelyn for the first time, whilst being stitched back up

If you find yourself in the more prepared position of knowing that you’ll be having a C-Section, I’m sure you’ll have Googled the crap out of procedure as I did. We were planning on having a natural birth and had been preparing using Natal Hypnotherapy. I remember crying about being denied the opportunity to push when we were told we’d have to have a C-Section. But ultimately we accepted that all that mattered was that we had our baby girl safely delivered into our arms.

As Adelyn was stubbornly breeched from Week 28, our first birth was via C-Section (was elective but my waters broke early so became an “emergency” but honestly was as chill an experience as we could have hoped for). I remember walking into theatre, music playing through speakers in the room and the medical team chatting with me, Hubs in his scrubs beside me the whole time. I was more excited than anything; after they extracted her from me and we heard her cry out for the first time I burst into happy tears.

Did You Know…?

The baby comes out quickly! – Like…the procedure itself probably took about 45 minutes in total, and Adelyn was out in the first 12 minutes!

Your first wee after your catheter comes out. The hospital have this weird checklist of things you need to have done before they can release you. Peeing a certain amount of mls was one of them and it was the funniest/most frustrating pee of my life. Imagine really needing to wee but discovering that your body has apparently completely forgotten how to relax. And you have to pee into a measuring receptacle. And you have no core strength to hold yourself up because – hello? Surgery. It took me twenty minutes.

Your first poop – kind of terrifying because of the stitches and you have to use your tummy muscles somewhat. Don’t worry, you’ll be prescribed stool softener so it’ll make thing errm..easier.

That enema – you might be given a pain-killer enema as part of your C-Section. I kind of forgot that they’d done that as I couldn’t feel a thing down that way and it was with a false sense of strength and stamina that I was able to get out of the hospital bed to wander to the loo for that first pee about 12hrs after surgery. I was all “oh this isn’t so bad!” about moving. Yeah it felt very different after that painkiller wore off.

British Painkillers on offer – I was expecting to be discharged with some morphine but apparently I’d been reading rather American sources beforehand because I got sent home with a week’s worth prescription of Paracetamol and Ibuprofen, like I had a really bad headache and not major abdominal surgery (but don’t worry, it does the job nicely).

Really bad gas. So something about having the C-Section means that some air kind of gets trapped in there…you’ve just grown a human in you though so you’re already pretty amazing and strong so what’s a little wind eh? Only it’s a lot of it and it feels super uncomfortable. I imagine this is what colic feels like, so have a little empathy for your newborn when they have a gripey belly.

10 days of anti-blood clot injections – to me, this was actually the worst bit of the recovery process because they sting. But they are so essential as part of your post-op recovery and if motherhood teaches you anything, it’s that you NEED to be fit and able to function as a mother. You don’t want to have gone to all the effort of having a baby and then have complications due to a clot.

Walking in general. It’s tempting to not move but at the very least you’ll need to use the toilet haha…I’d read that “in the days after surgery, avoid using stairs”. I live in a townhouse, people!! Stairs are fine, just go slowly. In fact, just move like you’re training to be a Lady – think slow elegance and fantastic posture.

Tips

Sodding Heat Rash – take a breathable cotton nightshirt – for some reason I stayed in the hospital gown for 2/3 of the days we had to stay there and ended up with heat rash from being laid up in a plastic wrapped hospital bed and synthetic fibre gown. And the maternity ward is HOT.

Practice calming breathing – natal hypnotherapy and Yoga helped to school me in how to chill, which you might need for the bit where they inject the numbing goodness into your lower back or when your abdomen is being shaken about as they work that baby out of you only you can’t feel anything at all and it’s entirely bizarre.

Hold that baby – If you want to, you can totally ask to hold your baby ASAP after delivery – we weren’t able to have skin to skin straight away but I was able to hold her on my chest as they sewed me up and it was amazing. KS was the first to have skin to skin with Adelyn as they finished up on me, which was a beautiful bonding experience for him, and I was able to have skin to skin with her as soon as I got to the recovery room.

Natural Birth – VBAC

Moments after giving birth to Elodie, cracking on with breastfeeding!

With Elodie she was head down for most of the 2nd and all of the 3rd trimester so we were in as good a position as any to proceed with a VBAC (with the apparently entirely usual dire warnings of “you have to birth on the hospital maternity ward in case your C-Section scar ruptures” etc – but honestly the medical team have to keep telling you this more as an FYI to cover their butts rather then the unintentional affect of making you kinda paranoid about the integrity of your body’s healing powers.)

Again, my waters broke early and 24 hours later the contractions still weren’t strong enough so we ended up being induced via Syntocinon drip (I’d literally only dilated 2cm in about 40 hours…you need to be 10cm to be in the final push stage). It’s a synthetic version of oxytocin which helps get contractions moving along and boy did they. Contractions went from being manageable tightenings that I could still eat my chicken Caesar Salad through, to requiring silence and my absolute focus and energy to be able to breathe through each wave.

Natal Hypnotherapy – I couldn’t have gotten through this VBAC without it. Interested in it? I’ll do another post on it soon but in the mean time I’ll happily answer any questions about it!

The “Meh” Bits

Waiting to dilate – can take a while….like, long enough for one’s husband to binge-watch Altered Carbon on his iPhone in the labour ward.

Using the toilet with contractions – so natal hypnotherapy only worked when I could focus and breathe. But when you’re in active labour for hours, you’re still going to need to use the toilet and yes I am woman hear me roar – but I can only multitask so much and OMG I felt the overwhelming sensations of the contractions when I had to switch tracks to focus on getting my body to pee.

I read about the Self-Doubt stage and thought I’d remember when it came that it means you’re almost at the finish line – and after hours of steadily harder-to-manage contractions, being told I was 6cm dilated made me want to throw in the towel. I wanted a mo’fuggin epidural or a C-Section by this point because I couldn’t bear the thought of having to work through another 4hours to get another 4cm dilated. (Read Highs as the story continues…)

Pushing so dang hard I burst a few blood vessels on my face and chest. When I got to shower afterwards I was like “WTF are these red dots?!” (they went after a few days)

Saying “I think I’m going to poo myself!” during the pushing stage (for the record I didn’t).

Husband curious about the business end – I definitely said beforehand that I didn’t really want him to look down there during. He did. He…was more awed than anything, or so he tells me haha…

Narrowly avoiding an episiotomy but ending up with a few stitches anyway – did not care at all by that stage but they felt pretty damn uncomfortable for 2 weeks after I gave birth, mostly because one of the sutures was pulling awkwardly every time I moved.

Laughing in the face of the home-visit Midwife Team when they started politely enquiring if I’d considered contraception now that I’d given birth – do they not recall how unrecognisable one’s undercarriage area is at that point in the post-partum phase?! Everything was so swollen.

Being mystified as to why the hell my whole upper body ached so much for days after the birth (thinking “are my arms really that weak that holding a 3.5kg baby is giving me muscle ache?!”) and then having flashbacks to clinging onto the bed frame in the hospital to essentially push against when I was actually pushing.

The Bits That Made Me Feel Like A BOSS

I went from 6cm to fully dilated in 1hour 8mins 🙌🏽 Could not have done it without having done Natal Hypnotherapy – contractions were astonishingly animalistically overwhelming if you let the intensity take you over (you make the oddest noises). Being mentally prepared to breathe properly through ever-powerful contractions and reminding yourself to let your body essentially hug your baby down took a LOT of focus so when I was told “OK you’re fully dilated” I was literally like “huh? Really??”

The pushing stage, though damn tiring, felt so so so good. After having to work on calmly accepting every wave of contractions for hours and hours, being able to physically help move things along and to feel her head crowning was simply amazing. Anyone else remember that Friends episode where Ross is all like “how are you doing this???” to Rachel – that was basically my husband.

I miraculously didn’t swear at all

Feeling proud that we managed to impress the Midwife Team with our team work and my pushing skills!

Feeling proud (and lucky) that we were equipped with Natal Hypnotherapy to give us the empowering birth we hoped for

Feel a lot more confident in myself now and will definitely be calling on this newfound strength in any future incidences of self-doubt.

This is already a really long post and I still haven’t covered even the half of it.

For me personally, I found that giving ourselves time to mentally prepare to be calm once we were in surgery/in labour helped to bring an element of feeling in control and understanding what was happening at each stage – for both types of birth.

Now I’ve done both I feel like I can achieve anything with a bit of support and a forkload of focus.

Whatever fears you may have about giving birth will be over the moment that baby is out. And then you realise that being a parent is way scarier than giving birth – hah!

Let’s take a look back on the past 38 weeks compared to my first pregnancy.

1. Energy Levels

FIRST PREGNANCY – Growing life inside you really takes it out of a girl, so I was lucky to have worked with a company at the time who allowed two-hour lunch breaks and gave me permission to work from home a couple of days a week as I got bigger. I remember sitting on the sofa watching TV with a PB&J on toast at 2am from Third Trimester insomnia.

SECOND PREGNANCY – Growing life inside you when you are working, mothering, wife-ing and home-making makes me feel like fricking Wonder Woman. I am capable of ANYTHING (but I need to be tucked up in bed by 20:30 or I’m more the Incredible Sulk). Since the Third Trimester insomnia hit me, I’ve just taken to trying to Yoga breathe my way back to chill, or failing that making To-Do Lists and online shopping. But seriously though, it has been more tiring this time around so I’m even luckier to work for a company who have allowed me to work from home since January :D.

Having said that, time has gone by a lot faster so I haven’t felt like I’ve had much time to wallow in the limited energy levels.

2. Marvel at the Bump difference

FIRST PREGNANCY – Adelyn was a breach baby from like Week 28, wouldn’t turn no matter how many inversions I did or even after attempting an ECV (just, no never again). Her head was permanently wodged beneath my right rib – so my Bump was a bit flat and high up for the whole time.

SECOND PREGNANCY – Baby 2.0 has been nicely head down for a while now and I’ve found that I can actually still bend down to e.g. do my shoes. The bump has been way more pronounced and poked out early – all of which the Midwives tell me is because “everything’s looser this time round”. 😳 This time round the Bump has been relatively low (and dare I say comfy?), and yet compact. In my mind I like to think that you wouldn’t be able to tell I was pregnant from behind.

However – I’ve been feeling a lot more aches and heaviness in the pelvic area this time round due to her head knocking around down there, yet none of the ankle bloating I had with Adelyn.

3. My Husband’s Attention

FIRST PREGNANCY – he read a bunch of books and attended the Natal Hypno sessions with me. Wouldn’t let me lift a thing if he could help it, I remember him helping me out of the car, carrying bags and opening doors for me. Aww. He even insisted on taking weekly photos to document the Bump growth.

SECOND PREGNANCY – Literally forced refresher Natal Hypno notes into his hands and begged him “PLEASE STOP PLAYING DESTINY 2 TILL 2AM AND PREPARE FOR THIS BIRTH”. Take my own bump selfies (when I remember) and carry my own damn bags, with a lot of huffing and muttering.

4. Spend Less, Same Result

FIRST PREGNANCY – take the whole pregnancy test thing – I was in NYC for work and bought the most expensive Digital Blue Test I could find.

SECOND PREGNANCY – A pregnancy test is a pregnancy test OK? You’ll only get accurate results from taking it when your period is due and not the day after you made with the love. For our Second, I was at home and used a remarkably low-key Boots own brand test.

FIRST PREGNANCY – was too scared to bend over to put shoes on in case of squishing the unborn. Had a Personal Trainer at the gym to walk me through “safe” workouts to help me stay strong.

SECOND PREGNANCY – I’m coming up to 38 weeks now and in the past couple of weeks I’ve been carrying rails down from the top floor to the garage, breaking up tree branches to put into the Garden Waste bin, lugging kilos of laundry up to the top floor to dry and carrying Coco across particularly precarious paving on our walks. My “alarm” that I’ve overdone something and need to chill the frick out has been a muscle pain in my left side.

6. Different Anxieties

FIRST PREGNANCY – With everything new and never-before-experienced, it was easy to fret about a lot of things. Is her heartbeat normal? Is she growing ok? Am I putting on too much weight? Am I overdoing things? Does the alcohol in anti-bacterial gel harm the unborn baby? Don’t even get me started on parabens, nail varnishes and lipstick.

Also around the birth itself – first we were prepared for natural birth, then we had to have a C-Section because of the Breachness.

SECOND PREGNANCY – Well my first pregnancy was a lesson in itself about the amount of chemicals we apply on ourselves (creams, make-up, soaps) and ingest so I kind of continued along the more conscious route meaning everything I’ve been using has been pretty low in weird unpronounceable chemicals. And it’s amazing what pretty nails can do for a knackered Mother who’s battled with her toddler over dinner time for the umpteenth time.

This time we’re determined to have a natural birth (even with that awful midwife I keep getting who always likes to bring up C-Section scar rupturing) – so it’s basically like being a first time mum as I’ve not experience labour before…but I’m kind of excited for it 🙂

7. Making Better Purchases (to suit our needs)

FIRST PREGNANCY – without the personal experience, we found that we relied on anecdotes from other parents we knew and/or what we were reading in books and online for advice on Prams, Cots, Carriers, Newborn Toys and Muslin material (?!!)

SECOND PREGNANCY – this time we get to feel quite jammy because we can repurpose everything from Adelyn’s early years and only buy things that we know we would’ve found so useful the first time around. E.g. a side-Cot for night feedings and kimono-styled onesies so you don’t have to awkwardly pull clothes over the tiny being’s head at 2am.

One thing hasn’t changed though, the wonderment and gratitude of having been able to have another tiny kicky little being growing inside. Truly heart-warming whenever Adelyn mentions her little sister or comes to give the bump a kiss and a cuddle. Just this morning when we were snuggled up in bed she was pointing to the cot saying “Little Sister coming soon?”

Flipping heck it’s been a while since I posted anything, let alone an edition of the Family Friendly Outings…I promise we have been taking the little Madam out!

Adelyn recently learned how to say “sushi” so we figured we’d take her out to have her first taste and treat ourselves at the same time. Combined with a trot through Greenwich Park and a good old play in the playground – it was a lovely (albeit grey/windy) Sunday afternoon out.

Ambience:Big square (some communal) style tables with comfy, cushioned and wide-backed supportive chairs for the grown-ups in a corner area at the front of the restaurant – window-side views to keep little ones occupied and shouting “BUS!” every so often. People with young families were seated in this section, and it was nice and chilled. No worrying about where to put your pram or your child dropping food on the floor – because other kiddos were doing the same! (Further back in the restaurant is the “grown-up” area nearer to the kitchen, with the harder, more style-inclined chairs).

Facilities:Ladies & Gents loos down the stairs, very nicely appointed. Easily accessible and clean/spacious changing facilities located on the main restaurant floor. Standard wooden high-chair supplied. Children’s activities included in the menu and a tub of crayon-pens to keep little fingers occupied before the sticks n’ sushi-eating begins.

Table was a little suspiciously sticky but nothing a good anti-bac wipe-down couldn’t handle – bonus of being a parent, you’ll never be caught without tissues/wet-wipes of some description.

Food:Bit of something for everyone here really, a nice variety of meat on sticks and a great variety of both traditional (salmon and avocado) and non-traditional (salmon and cream cheese?!) sushi on offer. Impressed by the Children’s menu at about £7.50. We went for the Chicken meatball skewer and salmon maki rolls (also came with choice of small drink and a little chocolate fish).

Less impressed by the Hotate Kataifi (scallops served in a little crispy kataifi bowl), which at £10.80, we were expecting significantly bigger potions of scallop instead of what seemed like one scallop cut up into 6 pieces. Didn’t bother photographing it but in hindsight, wish I had to share the dismay!

Enjoyed the Table for 2 sushi platter, which consisted of Nigiri: Salmon, tuna, shrimp, salmon New York (i.e. with a bit of minced garlic on top) inari and sea bass, Maki: Pink Alaska, spicy tuna and gypsy roll.

Overall:Nice for a family treat and the restaurant was suitably child-friendly, though truth be told, Adelyn was way more interested in popping the edamame beans than actually eating anything. Oh well, we’ll just have to try her on more sushi some other time 🙂

And yes, for the record I refer to our pug Coco as my baby. And my actual baby is still being called my baby even though she’s technically a toddler but I’m in denial.

Not only has Adelyn been ill, but Coco also had emergency surgery on Monday morning (tip: do NOT let your husband let your dog eat leftover corn on the cob as a treat – it will get stuck in their stomach and will get messy and painful).

So both girls have been in serious need of TLC.

Coco’s nicely on the mend and is already back to being excited for meal times and gentle walks around the block. She’s been sitting next to Adelyn at every opportunity, almost protective-like.

With Adelyn – it’s “just” a cold virus but never in the past (almost) 15 months have I been so scared for our little one. A week on from the first symptoms and she’s had a temperature rising to 40.1C and dropping to 34.6C, hours of screaming in some sort of unknown agony, dwindling to non-existent appetite and refusing to drink anything but from the boob, many calls to 111 and an early morning trip to the Urgent Care Unit.

And I was dealing with that whilst working (from home).

So why am I writing this post? I guess I just wanted to reassure other working parents out there that it is shit and scary and stressful – y’know, safety in numbers, you’re not alone, sisterly solidarity whoo!

I’ve spent the past week feeling guilty for neglecting my team, and then guilty for neglecting my girls because I was worrying about neglecting my team, ad infinitum.

I spent nights and early mornings comforting Adelyn and fretting about tasks to get done for work for the next day.

Balancing my responsibilities at work and at home has been really tough. I’ve cried more than I have in a while out of sheer frustration – it’s been terrifying to see Adelyn’s little body lose weight and keep on top of emails (and in our company, there are an inordinate amount of emails that come in).

But it’s in these tough times that you gain perspective, and it makes you so grateful for all the things you usually take for granted.

I’ve missed her smile, her laughter, her voice, her naughty curiosity about everything. Do you have any idea how much harder it is to change the nappy of a child that is thrashing around in extreme anger at the world for giving her nasty germs?? (Actually it’s not that different from a child that wants to roll away to explore, and will loudly indicate that she will not tolerate having a clean bottom if it means she has to stay still for 20 seconds)

These are the things I’m grateful for:

that my company allow me to work from home

that I’ve been able to offer comfort to my baby (for us, it’s breastfeeding)

that Adelyn and Coco have a doting father who will cuddle and feed and nurture them given any chance

that I live doors down from my Mum and her partner – giving me a break from cabin fever and feeding us – I have tremendous respect for single parents out there holding down a job with a sick little one – this past week would’ve been near impossible without them

that my dad came to cook a nutritious meal for us all after hearing that the girls were poorly

that I have some truly lovely friends out there checking in on us, giving advice and sending love

the NHS – like, seriously. From pregnancy, to birth, to providing support and care for our ill bubba – they’re amazing.

the discovery of the Miffy cartoon (on the Tiny Pop channel) – we’ve finally relaxed our NO TV thing when Adelyn stopped screaming, pointed and said “buh-buh” (that’s “bunny” to you and I) – the first time we’d heard her voice in days.

So here we are, it’s Easter Sunday and we think (hope) our little Miss A is finally recovering.

I would be so interested to hear tips on coping from fellow parents/care-givers – comment away 🙂

This is my honest Ode To Breastfeeding. I’m not going to bother extolling the virtues of it because at the end of the day a fed and nourished baby is happy baby, regardless of breast or formula.

And for my guy friends – this’ll probably wander into TMI territory – you have been warned.

Throwback to a feed at 8 months old

At 14 months, Adelyn’s still getting breastmilk straight from the source (we really really tried but she just absolutely refused the bottle). Even though I’m back at work, and with her eight (!) teeth we still manage to get a morning and a bedtime feed in – I’m not in a rush to stop as I love the bonding time we get and I know it won’t last forever (because I have no intention of being GoT’s Lysa Arryn).

I’ve had some of my funniest, most memorable experiences of being a mum because of breastfeeding – from wandering outside with my nursing top still in feed position (i.e. exposed), to enjoying a walk in the woods with Adelyn dangling in her sling nursing happily. From leaky boob situations out in public (always wear a dark colour!) to now; prising her little hands away as they seek to pull my top down to get access.

I thought I’d read a lot of stuff to prepare for a baby before Adelyn came along and I was still surprised by so many things when it came to breastfeeding. Though I guess it was a nice surprise to discover that you (usually) don’t get your period if you’re Breastfeeding loads!

The Beginning:

We had to have a C-Section to give birth so I had the worry about skin-to-skin and not being able to breastfeed straight away – I’m so grateful that she didn’t sense any apprehension and simply suckered on for a good 40 minutes as soon as I was able to hold her to me.

A lot of the books talk about the importance of getting your milk supply up and maintaining it – I was so worried about “what if I can’t produce enough milk for my baby?”. So imagine my surprise as I realised really quickly that the opposite was actually possible; Overproduction.

Milk went EVERYWHERE.

My bra size went up to EE, which I didn’t even know was a thing.

When you’re feeding your newborn baby on demand every few hours and your milk is literally spraying all over said baby, do you realise how many time you have to change them into dry clothes?!

I went through so many breast pads, and I tried all the brands (from supermarket to eco-friendly to bamboo pads to branded) and can honestly say that Lansinoh are the best (this isn’t an ad by the way). They could absorb a stunning amount of liquid and stay dry against your skin whilst staying quite discrete.

The Let Down Reflex:

My biggest shock was that when you experience “let down” it happens in both boobs – i.e. your baby is suckling on one boob and as the milk starts coming out (basically of it’s own accord as a trickle or a stream or a downright watering-can-style-spray) it comes out of BOTH nips.

It felt weird too – like a pins and needles feeling. Kind of shocking because who the hell is used to having pins and needles in their jugs, for goodness sake.

Hearing Adelyn cry would sometime trigger my milk let down. Having a hot shower would also set them off. Literally spent at least the first 5 months of being a mum with SOMETHING held to my breasts.

A Favourite Breast:

As we had a C-Section, it made holding her bloody awkward in those first few weeks – thank goodness they come out tinyish.

For some reason Adelyn was fine feeding from Left but struggled to latch and would get frustrated about Right – which meant Left was making a lot more milk than Right and I was panicking. The Rugby Hold didn’t work too well (as a way to try to let her feed as if she was being held to the Left but actually feeding on the Right) and I was NOT impressed when the health visitor thought it’d be a great idea to nurse lying down sideways – how is a woman who’s stomach muscles have just been cut through supposed to sit back up again to wind the baby? With said newborn conked out next to her?!

We managed in the end though, through perseverance and improving the latch and my nifty pregnancy pillow turned feeding pillow. I did dread feeding from Right for what felt like an age but was probably more like 3-4 weeks.

Nipple Changes:

I now take it for granted that I’ve been able to breastfeed for a year now without much thought – she knows what to do and can basically attach herself from any angle. It’s not unless I stop and reminisce about the early days that I remember the extreme discomfort one’s nipples experience as they learn to get used to having a little being attached every few hours through the day (and night). I never had to use any balms but I do remember a hint of blood blistering and tenderness (it hurt to feel clothes against them FFS) – but thankfully that only lasted a couple of weeks and I barely remember it now.

They definitely got darker in colour too – I wonder if that’s to help the baby hone in on them…?

They go back to normal after a little while!

Pumping – Bloody Annoying:

After I discovered my alarmingly overzealous milk production in the form of poor Adelyn spluttering during her feeds, I found I had to pump a teeny bit before our night feeds (as she’d sleep for a little longer between feeds) to basically ease the pressure. I would also have to wake up in the middle of the night to pump even when she didn’t wake up for a feed because guess what? Breasts that are full of milk get pretty damn swollen and uncomfortable.

Top tip: a manual pump was easier than an electric one. That thing went with me everywhere at one point. On holiday, trips to the shopping mall – if I was out of the house and knew there was a chance that Adelyn would miss a feed, it was a boob-saver.

14 Months On:

Before I had Adelyn, I kind of figured I’d probably have stopped breastfeeding by 12 months. Yet a year went by and it still didn’t feel like it was time (even though 4 teeth had come through by then).

Yeah I have my days where I feel like this:

From Bored Panda’s 10+ Animal Expressions That Sum Up Being A Mum

And sure, she’s developed a habit of sticking her other hand down my bra and slapping me mid-feed.

But hey – I don’t know how much longer she’ll want to come to me with her arms thrown wide – so I’ll happily go on for a bit longer.

I wanted to write an inspirational post in honour of it being international Women’s Day. Y’know; about being proud to be a woman and making a difference etc etc.

What happened though was that I had the messiest, most difficult time feeding my very own little lady her dinner tonight. She insisted on poking her tongue out after every other mouthful and basically made the action of washing her hands in her food bowl before throwing said hands in the air thus creating a confetti effect of macaroni bolognese.

And then I had to jump back into work mode, as I’ve been working from home today.

Oh and I cooked dinner.

HAVOC!!

Being a working mum ain’t easy. Being a working mum and working from home is like…the ultimate test of nerve, wits and patience haha…

I’m grateful that my other little (pug) lady was around to help me clean (read: eat) up the mess.

I’m grateful that I have my own home in which to be a working mum within.

I’m grateful to have been blessed enough to have a little one, and to have the opportunity to raise a sassy, amazing little girl.

I’m grateful for my own sassy, amazing mum.

And I’m grateful for marrying an incredible man who supports me in my every effort to do awesome things.